Are you seeking the signs or He whom those signs signify?

This is a very important chapter in the Gospel of John and for 5 Sundays, our Holy Mother Church has determined that we stop and focus on this chapter, within which is contained the Bread of Life Discourse.

We have been hearing recently from the gospel of Mark that crowds of people have been following Jesus and they were marveling at the signs that he worked. That is His miracles. Remember back to the great miracles like the raising of the Jairus’ daughter to life, the healing of the woman on the roadside who had been suffering from hemorages. There were numerous expulsions of demons and admonishments of unclean spirits. Jesus was becoming famous. He was a well-known teacher and rabbi. Yet, last week heard that even with all of the signs, when our Blessed Lord looked out over the crowds, He was moved with pity, for they seemed scattered about as sheep without a shepherd.

We have to ask ourselves, how can this be? How can so many people be lost and scattered when our Lord was offering them so many signs, wonders and miracles? I think today be get our answer after this last sign, “The Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes”. At face value, it may seem that this miracle is no more important others…it has only to do with food…it’s not like some is being brought back to life or something! Yet, if you listen closely, you will find that Jesus had carefully chosen this miracle to be the most important. When he asks Phillip where they could find food to feed the five thousand men, the gospel says that Jesus “himself knew what what He was going to do.” He knew what he was going to do. Maybe not so much there then and now, but more so soon, later, in the future, and more so now, at this present time for us. He knew what He was going to do.

The crowds were looking for the wrong thing. They were looking for signs, but instead they should have been looking for not the signs, but that which they signify, that is our Lord Jesus Christ, revealed and present as the eternal son of the Father, incarnate, in the flesh, not just a human leader and king, the the divine Messiah, promised throughout the ages past.

So it happened as it was recorded in the Gospel of John that Jesus had went across the Sea of Galilee and a large crowed followed him up on the mountain where he had them sit down on the grass and recline to eat. It says that the Jewish Feast of the Passover was near, that time of commemoration for when after a sacrificial meal of roasted lamb and unleavened bread the Lord brought the Israelites out of slavery and delivered them into their promised land. Indeed it was the time of the Passover, but for Jesus and for us it was the time for a new Passover, when Christ himself would become our Paschal Lamb and He would provide for us His own body and His own Blood under the sacramental appearance of unleavened bread and wine. It was the time of the new Passover, the New Paschal Mystery, the new Eucharist.

So our Blessed Lord did not want the crowds to be merely impressed by the signs that He could preform, but rather He wanted them to realize that it was not the signs that they wanted, but rather that which those signs signified. Thus He had the crowds recline to eat and “Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining.” And now, not too much later we, those gathered here today and each and every time we gather in this holy place…

…We will hear and experience the words of our Blessed Lord: “On the day before he was to suffer, He took bread, giving thanks, he said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his disciples saying, ‘Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my body, which will be given up for you.’ And in a similar way, he took the chalice and once more giving you thanks, he said the blessing and gave the chalice to his disciples saying: ‘Take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my blood’.”

Today the Lord miraculously multiplies the loaves and fishes, but down allow yourselves to be caught up in the signs like crowds did. But rather look towards what these signs signify, to our Lord Jesus Christ, + . In this first passage of Chapter 6 of the gospel of John, our Lord is preparing us and the crowds for something that is to happen. Something that is very important for our life and faith. He desires to feed us with His very own life. Thus He will proclaim to an incredulous crowd of disciples that unless you eat His flesh and drink His blood, you will not have eternal life. For he will say that his flesh is true food and his blood is true drink.

Do you believe? Or will you believe?

St. Edward the Confessor Catholic Church is a Roman Catholic parish of the
Diocese of Boise,
committed to living the Catholic life and spreading the Gospel.